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The Sybarite: Shades of green

Green posturing is becoming somewhat wearisome. I am tired of deciphering the semiotics of green. "Organic" or "natural" on a beauty product can mean anything from 1% of an ingredient to 100%. More often than not, it is 1%. I've found, over the past few years, that many brands are shifty about divulging even the proportions of ingredients. Organic is a predominantly selfish concern: for companies, it's a way of shifting more product; for most consumers, it's more about not putting "chemicals" in the body than protecting the environment. And it can be prohibitively expensive. Environmentalism has become another way for middle-class Hyacinth Buckets to sneer at the working classes for their cheap flights, processed food and chemical-sodden beauty products.

What infuriates me most is the inconsistency of green proselytisers such as David Cameron and Tim Yeo, with their chauffeur-driven cars and flights abroad. Stella McCartney, I fear, may be